Bin Laden "First"
By Hani Nakshabandi
Has America forgotten bin Laden? Has it forgotten “ al-Qaeda” and the Taliban and Mullah Omar? If not, then why isn’t America talking about them today? Why has Iraq snatched the limelight away from Afghanistan? From hour one it has been bin Laden “first.” Now suddenly it’s Iraq “first!” Because of this, the pens of the American press have begun launching attacks against everybody including those friends from Saudi Arabia to Egypt. But, why has this surprising change taken place in America’s position: from Afghanistan to Iraq?
The first reason is that America, as has already been noted, doesn’t know what it wants from its friends or ultimately even from itself.
The second reason is that the United States has no regard at all for what its friends and allies are saying about it, while we like to say that America is betting its losses relative to us. What, then, will we bet on?
Today there is only one power in the world. And we are compelled to deal with this power even when it makes us angry. For its part, America knows that whatever it decides to do it doesn’t have to wait for anyone else to lend its consent. It has the right to consider this or that, and “whoever doesn’t like it can go drink the sea!”
There remains a third reason for the rapid change in the American position. That is that Iraq is but an extension of the strike to punish Afghanistan! Meaning that America deliberately wants to shift attention away from Afghanistan, not to cover up its failures in Afghanistan, but to give bin Laden an opportunity to move!
We are just days away from the one year commemoration of the September tragedy (lit. “wound”), but we have not begun to penetrate the issues behind its causes. And, we don’t know whether bin Laden is alive or dead.
Apparently, America discovered rather late in the game that as long as it kept itself focused on Afghanistan, it would have to face up to two facts: its anguished realization that it isn’t able to make the military option work there and decide the contest in line with its interests, and secondly, that as long as bin Laden remained under the gaze of the American surveillance apparatus he would not move an inch.
Therefore, it became important to give bin Laden the chance to move, or the chance to pick himself up, and begin to move. It will find out where his residence is, or at least where he is, and whether he has been planning a new operation…and when?
The United States wants to egg on bin Laden by means of Iraq. It has not forgotten bin Laden, and it will never forget him. He is the principal target now, not Saddam Hussein. This is not to deny that the Iraqi regime is America’s enemy, but it remains a matter of bin Laden “first.”
Perhaps this is the main reason for the American threats against Iraq, although I don’t understand how one country can resolve to strike another and announce it frankly indifferent to the most important elements of war, especially the element of surprise?
The operation, in short, looks like a shotgun aimed at Iraq’s head, but the real target is Afghanistan.
The question remains: what if bin Laden doesn’t budge from his hideout? What if he stays wherever he is?
Who will become the next foe, the next one at whom the gun’s muzzle will be aimed?
May God protect…
August 25-31, 2002
Translated by Ted Thornton